Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sci34hub!eng3!felton
From: felton@eng3.UUCP (Ed Felton)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.misc
Subject: Re: Getting rid of "syntax error" from .bat files - how to?
Summary: Magic!
Keywords: Neat Tricks with "."
Message-ID: <702@eng3.UUCP>
Date: 10 Dec 90 22:06:49 GMT
References: <9467@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: felton@eng3.sci.com (Ed Felton)
Organization: Itty Bitty Diagnostics Team
Lines: 28

Graham Brand writes:
}I have written a batch file which accepts parameters from the command
}line using the:
}	if %1==param1
}syntax. It works fine except that if I don't pass any parameters, I
}get the above syntax error message. Is there any way to suppress this?

ok, here's a simple trick.  try:

  if .%1==.param1

The dot will be there no matter what, as it is put there by you.  The error 
you are getting is when the command.com command line interpreter sees the 
following: 

  if ==param1

which is so obviously an error that humans can see the problem.
the fix suggested above by the way, works the same as the echo. trick to
put out blank lines. 

By the way... Wouldn't it be nice to have a real set of tools for this,
instead of DOS's broken stuff?  Hey Microsoft! listen to your market!


}In addition, is there any way of passing a string, the first character
}of which is a dash (-), as in -f? It doesn't seem to work with the
}above test.